Iranian researchers have managed to produce an artificial windpipe for the first time by using tissue engineering techniques.
Ali Akbar Velayati, head of the Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases Research Center, said on Dec. 13 the device was 70 percent successfully tested on sheep and it will be tested on humans next year, IRNA reported.
Velayati noted that since in the structure of the artificial windpipe the tissue of patient is used the implant process easily assimilates and the possibility of rejection is greatly reduced.
He pointed out that achieving this technology is very useful for patients who have been exposed to chemical weapons during the1980-88 Iraq-imposed War.
The artificial windpipe was produced by researchers at Shahid Beheshti Medical University and Masih Daneshvari Hospital. Jalaleddin Ghanavi, MD, headed the study.Windpipe or trachea is a tube-like portion of the respiratory tract that connects the larynx (the voice box) with the bronchial parts of the lungs.

Mushrooms could impede the development of cancer by affecting the immune system.

Scientists claim that a wild mushroom, used in traditional Chinese medicine for a century, could treat prostate cancer, according to a new study.
Researchers said they found molecules in the Ganoderma lucidum mushroom, commonly known as the reishi, which help suppress some mechanisms involved in the progression of prostate cancer.
“We already knew the mushroom could impede the development of cancer by affecting the immune system. The in-vitro trials we have done show that it attacks the cancer cells directly,“ chief researcher Ben Zion Zaidman told AFP.
“These results give rise to hope about developing medication to treat prostate cancer,“ he said of research carried out to date only in Petri dishes. The research still has to be tested on animals.
The reishi is found only in remote, wild areas, preferring a habitat of rotting plum tree trunks, sometimes oak trees, in heavily forested mountain areas.
The Chinese have tried to grow reishi mushrooms for centuries, but it was only in the early 1970s that Japanese experts managed to cultivate them.
Prostate cancer is one of the most common forms of cancer among men, with more than 543,000 cases diagnosed worldwide each year.

Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation, Sony, on Dec. 13 unveiled a prototype digital camera shaped like a pizza cutter with a wheel that can be turned to generate enough power to take pictures.
According to Physorg.com, the “Twirl N’ Take“ camera generates enough electricity for one snap if the wheel is moved for some 15 seconds.
A digital camera similar to those used in mobile phones is installed in a handle attached to the wheel, which is equipped with a power-generating device, a Sony official said.
Moving the wheel and taking pictures would appeal to children but the company has no immediate plan to commercialize it.
As the camera has no screen monitor, users must connect the device to a computer to see their pictures.
The camera is the latest addition to Sony’s “odo“ line of hand-powered prototypes aimed at raising environmental awareness.
Other products include a “Crank N’ Capture“ video camera, which is charged by cranking a lever, and a “Spin N’ Snap“ camera, which has a hole to enable users to spin it with their finger.

Green tea possesses neuroprotective effects.

Does the consumption of green tea, widely touted to have beneficial effects on health, also protect brain cells? Authors of a new study being published in the December 15th issue of Biological Psychiatry share new data that indicates this may be the case.
The authors investigated the effects of green tea polyphenols, a group of naturally occurring chemical substances found in plants that have antioxidant properties, in an animal model of Parkinson’s disease, according to ScienceDaily.
Parkinson’s disease is a progressive, degenerative disorder of the central nervous system, resulting from the loss of dopamine-producing brain cells, and there is presently no cure.
According to Dr. Baolu Zhao, corresponding and senior author on this article, current treatments for Parkinson’s are associated with serious and important side effects.
Their previous research has indicated that green tea possesses neuroprotective effects, leading Guo and colleagues to examine its effects specifically in Parkinson’s.
The authors discovered that green tea polyphenols protect dopamine neurons that increase with the amount consumed.
They also show that this protective effect is mediated by inhibition of the ROS-NO pathway, a pathway that may contribute to cell death in Parkinson’s.
Considering the popularity of green tea beverages worldwide, there is enormous public interest in the health effects of its consumption.
It is extremely important to identify the putative neuroprotective mechanisms in animal models, as Guo and colleagues have begun to do for Parkinson’s disease.“
Dr. Zhao’s hope is that eventually “green tea polyphenols may be developed into a safe and easily administrable drug for Parkinson’s disease.“ If green tea consumption can be shown to have meaningful neuroprotective actions in patients, this would be an extremely important advance.

A way to harness microorganisms to wring up to 10 percent more energy out of much of the world’s oil reserves was unveiled on Dec. 15 by a British-led team.
The world has estimated oil reserves of about 3,000 billion (three trillion) barrels of which between one third and two thirds have been exploited and, given the consumption of around 30 billion barrels each year, there are worries that the planet’s supply of fossil fuel will be exhausted within decades, Telegraph.o.uk said.
Now oil companies are to test a proposal to use microbes to help extract methane from existing reserves and also from deposits of degraded, heavy oil deposits, some of which are in the form of “tar sands“, of which there are another six trillion barrels.
Although the team that reports the breakthrough is reluctant to speculate on how much more the world’s supply of fossil fuels can now be exploited, given the uncertainties over how well the process will work and the state of the world’s reserves, it believes that the implications are “highly significant“.
There are many known examples of these reserves, where the oil has been broken down into thick and sulfurous tar by bacteria, of which oil companies are only able to harness around 17 percent using costly and polluting processes--such as injecting steam--to loosen the tar-like bitumen so it flows into wells and can be pumped to the surface.
But today, in the journal Nature, a team reports that it has found how oil is being broken down in these and traditional reservoirs.
If encouraged to accelerate, this naturally occurring mechanism could offer a route to economic production of up to ten percent of this difficult-to-recover energy from heavy oil/oil sands in the form of clean-burning natural gas, leaving hard-to-handle bitumen and contaminants deep underground.
And they could, in theory at least, wring another ten percent out of conventional reserves.
The advance comes because the team has found that crude oil in oil deposits around the world are naturally broken down by microbes in the reservoir, so long as it is not hotter than about 80 degrees C, a find that could revolutionize production and new ways to dispose of greenhouse gases.
Understanding how crude oil biodegrades into methane, or natural gas, opens the door to being able to stimulate them with fertilizer to produce more methane, and more quickly, and recover it directly from deeply buried oil sands deposits, says Prof Steve Larter, a Briton working at Calgary University, Canada. There may also be some hydrogen produced as well, depending on the conditions and bugs in the reservoir.

Red squirrels have a range of personalities, from exploratory and aggressive to careful and passive.

A recent study indicates that mother squirrels have personalities, and they are essential for the growth rate and survival of her pups.
Researchers at the Kluane Red Squirrel Project found that red squirrels have a range of personalities, from exploratory and aggressive to careful and passive.
Both kinds of squirrels persist in the population because neither personality type offers an exclusive advantage for survival, ScienceDaily reported.
The project is a collaborative research effort of the University of Alberta, Michigan State University and McGill University.
The team described personalities of red squirrel mothers and the effect personality has on the fitness of their pups.
“We used to think of behavior as being unbelievably flexible, and that it could adapt based on immediate circumstance to increase fitness,“ said Andrew McAdam, a MSU assistant professor of zoology and of fisheries and wildlife and one of the principal investigators in the Kluane Red Squirrel Project.
“More recently, researchers have been finding that organisms are actually more consistent in their behavior. They may not be as flexible as we thought,“ he said.
Giving a squirrel a personality test requires an open mind, the proper tools and patience. McAdam said that measuring a squirrel’s reaction to one situation could predict how it will behave in other circumstances.
To measure personality, squirrels were placed inside a large open box with holes in the floor, a mirror and a video camera.
The way the squirrel explored the box and its reaction to seeing itself in the mirror also was measured. Because they don’t recognize their reflection, they think their reflection is an intruder. These tests were used to determine the activity level and aggressiveness of the squirrels.
In addition, researchers found squirrels that were active explorers were more likely to attack their reflection.
“Consistent behavior under different circumstances is personality,“ McAdam said. “We recognize personality in people, dogs and cats--some are more aggressive and some are shy. Maybe it shouldn’t be so surprising that we see this in wild organisms as well.“
In years with abundant food, McAdam said, more active squirrels use their extra energy to their advantage and the pups grow faster.
When food is sparse, their high-energy lifestyle is costly and the offspring of passive squirrel mothers have the advantage.
“There is a range of personalities in squirrels because the personality that is better for fitness depends on the year,“ McAdam said.
Mother squirrel personalities also affected pup survival rates. Pups from aggressive mothers had lower survival rates when they were in their mother’s nest, but it wasn’t clear if it was a result of maternal style or other environmental effects.
Once they left the nest, they had better survival rates through the first winter. McAdam said it’s likely that this is because they are better at competing for territories than other pups.